


Coming Home

by GatorJen



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Baby Fic, F/M, Peggy Carter doesn't put up with shit from anyone, This came about because I wanted to write one line and it then spiraled out of control, descriptions of childbirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 16:09:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4793909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GatorJen/pseuds/GatorJen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pregnancy isn't easy to go through, even if you're both super soldiers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> If you're curious as to what "Twilight Sleep" is in relation to childbirth, read here.
> 
> If you're interested as to the history of air conditioning units (which is no one but me I'm sure) [Here you go](http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a7951/a-brief-history-of-air-conditioning-10720229/).
> 
> This all came about because I wanted to write a specific line when Peggy is pregnant. Thumbs up to anyone who can guess which line. Also, we really need more Peggy/Steve baby fic in our lives.
> 
> I've decided this will fit into the series I will be making that starts with my fic [Run Run Run](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4386884), where Peggy gets the benefit of the serum from Steve's blood.

Peggy was absolutely miserable.  The New York heat in the summer was awful enough under normal circumstances, but when the fact that she heavily pregnant was added in, it was nearly unbearable. 

Steve, bless him, did his best to try to keep her cool, even going so far as to use some of his pull as Captain America to have some of the new, portable, in-window air conditioner units installed in their home.  They did some to assuage the horrendous hot flashes she was having, but she knew the only true solution would be for the baby to come.

When Peggy’s due date came and went without so much as a hint of a contraction, Steve jokingly remarked there was no denying this baby was theirs, it clearly having a propensity to be late, just like its parents.

It was nearly a week after her due date, and while Steve was blissfully asleep, Peggy was tossing and turning in bed.  The pain in her lower back had been uncomfortable all day, and she was cursing the combination of it and the heat for keeping her from sleep.  Suddenly, during her next attempt to get comfortable, Peggy felt a pop and then a rush of wetness between her legs.

A feeling of calm descended over her as she got out of bed, rummaged through their dresser for clean clothing, and went to the bathroom to change.  When she came out, Steve was sitting up on the side of the bed, eyes half open, and hair sticking up at all angles.

“Everything alright, Peg?”

“Yes darling, everything is fine.  However, the baby has finally decided it’s time to make an appearance, so let’s be on our way to the hospital, shall we?”

She didn’t think she’d ever seen Steve move that fast, and that was saying something considering what she’d seen he could do during the war. 

Steve quickly got dressed, grabbed their hospital bag, and ushered her out to the car.  Her contractions had started to come full force (causing her to realize the back pain had actually been the beginning), and she was never more thankful for Steve’s super soldier strength as his hand surely would have been broken from the force of her squeezing it otherwise.

It didn’t take long for her to be wheeled back to a delivery room once the nurse at the reception desk realized who Steve was, but just as they were about to enter the room, the nurse turned to Steve and told him he would have to go to the men’s waiting room until after the baby was born. 

Peggy might have been more tactful about if she hadn’t been in agonizing pain, curtly telling the nurse, “If you do not let him in that room with me while I’m having this baby, I will bloody well give birth right here in this hallway.  It would be lovely for the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper to declare that Captain America’s child had to be born in the hallway of a hospital, don’t you think?”

The nurse was kind enough to find Steve a chair after she got Peggy settled in the bed.

Once they were alone and waiting for the doctor to enter, Steve brushed her hair away from her sweaty forehead and took hold of her hand.

“I think you sufficiently scared her within an inch of her life.  How are you feeling?”

“Yes, well, I wasn’t about to let her keep you out in that hallway because of some prudish sense of propriety.  Honestly, I certainly didn’t get pregnant on my own, and it’s not as if you haven’t seen every part of me naked.”

Before she could finish answering his question, she was hit with another strong contraction, and tried to breathe her way through it.  They were coming very close together now and the intensity of the pain was worse than when she had been shot in the shoulder.  She held on to Steve’s hand until it subsided, sweat dripping down her face and tears beginning to leak from her eyes.

“And I’m ready for this baby to come is how I’m feeling.”

“Well, Mrs. Rogers, let’s take a look and see how close we are to that happening.  How far apart have your contractions been coming?”

Steve and Peggy both turned toward the door, neither having heard the doctor and nurse come in.  Peggy’s smirk at the fact that neither the doctor nor the nurse said anything about Steve’s presence in the room quickly turned to a grimace of pain as yet another contraction hit.

“Her contractions are coming two minutes or less apart,” Steve answered for her, and Peggy was so very grateful for his response, as she didn’t think she could speak.

The doctor took a quick look under her dressing gown and quickly declared she was definitely ready to start pushing, waving the nurse off from giving what she was sure was going to be something to put her into twilight sleep.  She was thankful that the baby seemed to be coming quickly, as she didn’t think she had the strength in her to fight that battle too.

“Alright Mrs. Carter, when the next contraction comes, I want you to start pushing.”

Peggy nodded her head as Steve yet again pushed her damp hair away from her forehead.

She went through a few cycles of contraction, pushing, and rest, Steve telling her how good she was doing, how proud he was of her, how he couldn’t wait to meet this life they had created together.  After a particularly long contraction and push, the doctor told her the baby’s head was crowning, and it would only be a few more pushes before their baby would be here.

Peggy felt like she was floating in a cloud of pain, but then she felt Steve putting his arms around her back, supporting her, telling her she could do this, and she bared down for one final push.  The next thing she knew, she was hearing the cries of their baby, healthy lungs by the sound of it, and all she could do was fall back to the bed in relief.

“Congratulations, it’s a girl.  You’re almost done Mrs. Carter, we just need a couple more pushes for the after birth.”

Before she knew it, the doctor was telling her she was done, and Steve was hovering over where the nurse was cleaning off the baby and swaddling her.  He was speaking to the nurse in a quiet voice, but she was too tired to try to hear what was being said.  All she could focus on was the baby that Steve was now walking over with and placing in her arms.

“She’s beautiful Peggy.  And did you hear those lungs?  I never thought I would be so happy to hear a baby cry so loud, but that was the best sound I’ve ever heard.”

Peggy couldn’t do much more than stare at this tiny creature nestled against her chest, the surge of love coursing through her not stronger than what she felt for Steve, but different.  Steve was right, she was beautiful, with her full head of dark hair and Steve’s long lashes.  The thought that she almost didn’t have this with Steve quickly flitted across her mind, but she resolutely pushed it away, focusing instead on the joy she felt.

“What were you saying to the nurse?” she asked, as she forced her eyes away from the baby and up to Steve.

“I told her she was going to talk to the doctor and figure out a way for me and the baby to sleep in here, that she wouldn’t be going into the nursery.  What are we gonna name her?”

The rush of affection for Steve that came upon her with his words was enough for her to reach over and pull him down for a kiss.

“You really are the best man I’ve ever known Steve Rogers.  As for names, I was thinking Sarah would be a lovely name for a girl, don’t you think?”

Steve leaned down to give her another kiss and when he pulled back his eyes were shining with unshed tears.

“Yeah Peg, Sarah is a lovely name.  I love you and Sarah, so much.”

“We love you too Steve, don’t we my darling?”

Sarah made a little noise of what Peggy took to be assent, and closed her eyes, falling asleep on her chest, Peggy’s own eyes beginning to droop as well.  Steve gently moved her forward in the bed, coming to sit behind her, his large frame engulfing both her and the baby.

“Get some sleep Peggy, I’ll watch over you both.”

Her eyes drift closed and she falls into sleep, content to know that wherever the next step in life’s journey takes her, Steve and Sarah will be there with her.


End file.
